Explaining 'Manual Keigo,' the Code of Japan's Clerks www.citylab.com

Yuriko Nakao/ReutersThroughout Japan, store clerks and other service industry workers are trained to use the elaborate honorific speech called “manual keigo.” But change is coming.
Manual keigo swept Japan in the 1990s, a linguistic trend attributed to the rapid expansion of convenience stores across the country.
The significance of manual keigo is not in the actual words used, but in what those words represent.
The significance of manual keigo is not in the actual words used, but in what those words represent.
For its part, Family Mart notes that it has not received complaints since loosening its manual keigo policy.